1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dispensing containers. The present invention relates more specifically to an enclosure for surrounding a dispensing container of the type which holds disposable medical gloves and the like. The present invention relates to an enclosing envelope that improves the reliability of single item dispensing from the enclosure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Latex medical gloves are typically dispensed from cardboard boxes much in the nature of tissue containers. Typically, there are three or four different sized gloves that are packaged separately in such boxes (small, medium, large, extra large). It is common to position three or four different boxes within a holder on a wall in hospital or clinic settings.
The openings on the dispensing boxes are typically large and frequently allow more than a single glove to be withdrawn at a time. It is not unusual for as many as four or five gloves to fall from the box when a single glove is pulled cut. It would be desirable to create a dispensing aperture that controls the number of gloves released from the package. The present invention seeks to accomplish this and to reduce the waste associated with having to throw away gloves that fall to the floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,927 issued to Pruitt on Feb. 15, 1994, entitled "Container/Dispenser for Used Plastic Sacks." The Pruitt patent discloses a container/dispenser for plastic shopping bags that has an open top and an open bottom to which is secured a flexible lower section with a small opening through which the bags may be withdrawn one at a time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,293 issued to McLaughlin on Jul. 4, 1989, entitled "Disposable Glove Dispensing Apparatus." The McLaughlin patent describes a container for disposable, thin plastic gloves that requires the gloves to be packaged in a planar unfolded condition. Access to the gloves is provided one at a time through an aperture in the container wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,532 issued to Stephenson on Sep. 27, 1988, entitled "Dispensing System for Sterile Gloves." The Stephenson patent describes an enclosure for dispensing flattened, sterile, surgical gloves that are positioned one after another in a long continuous roll. The roll is fed from the dispenser in a manner such as a paper towel dispenser would operate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,226 issued to Keenan on Apr. 10, 1990, entitled "Hygienic Donning Packaging System for Surgical Gloves." The Keenan patent describes a donning system for individual medical surgical gloves that permits ease of insertion of the hand into the glove and the unrolling of the glove over the wrist and arm of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,986 issued to Richardson et al. on Jul. 5, 1994, entitled "Bathroom Accessories." The Richardson et al. patent describes the combination of a rigid plastic container such as a facial tissue holder and a washable, pleated cloth bag having a shape conforming to the rigid plastic container. The cloth bag surrounds the rigid container and incorporates a retainer element near the opening of the rigid container. The opening serves the purpose of holding an item out from the container for ease of access by the user.
The problems associated with standard surgical glove dispensing devices such as those described above relate either to their complexity or to their inadequate dispensing of single items at a time. The various patents and products disclosed above in the prior art that achieve the dispensing of a single glove or single item at a time, do so at the expense of a complicated storage mechanism within the container. By either packaging the gloves in an orderly flattened form or positioning the gloves in single increments on a roll, the attempts in the past to solve the problem of single glove dispensing have done so only at high manufacturing and production costs.
Efforts in other fields unassociated with the surgical glove industry have focused on containers for tissue products and the like. In most instances the concern in the tissue product field is the maintenance of an item at the opening of the container ready for the user to access. The problem addressed in the tissue product field is that of preventing the user from having to reach into the container to extract an item. Thus, in cases where an enveloping enclosure surrounds the container, the objective of an elastic opening is to secure a single item in position for use.
The problems associated with the medical glove product dispensing field are not so much associated with positioning an item to be dispensed as the prevention of multiple items from being dispensed at a single time. The objective of the container envelopes described in the tissue dispensing field are not directed so much to the prevention of multiple items from being withdrawn from the container but the maintenance of a single item in a position to be withdrawn. The structure of the typical surgical glove container is such that access to the items inside is relatively easy through the large opening provided in the container. There is in fact no need to maintain an item in position near the opening as much as there is a need to prevent multiple items from being dispensed.